There's no question that Roy Robinson is one of the most versatile and talented athletes ever to come through the University of Montana.
The Glasgow High School product remains part of two UM track records, sharing the high hurdles mark with Tim Fox and the 400-meter relay mark with Bill and Bob Zins and Dick Koontz.
He won both the 100-yard dash and the high hurdles at Big Sky Conference championship meets in 1969 and 1970.
He got a shot at playing pro football, and had he been a little more mature and a little less impatient, might have made it in the show, at least for awhile.
And to top it off, he was elected to UM's Grizzly Sports Hall of Fame in 1994 along with three other multi-sport athletes - Tom Davis, Marsha Hamilton and Bob O'Billovich. He was already a member of the school's football and track halls of fame.
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But regardless of raw talent, athletes also need confidence and a little prodding coupled with some support.
Robinson said recently he got all of those things from coaches and other staff that taught and encouraged him and community members who provided an emotional lift when he most needed it.
High on the list are Dan Freund, his high school coach in Glasgow, and Del and Bev Graves, a Missoula couple who acted as a host family for Robinson and other UM athletes and gave them a place to go whenever the stress of school or life got to be a little heavy.
Right now Robinson is working at a machine shop in Monroe, Wash., while living in Lake Stevens. The company produces things like medical implants, surgical screws and bone plates.
The Seattle-area job came about when Robinson lost his job in Bonner, where he had worked for 31 years for U.S. Plywood, then Champion International, and finally Stimson Lumber.
Robinson's wife, Sandi, and their two adopted children, Christopher and Dashinda, remain in Missoula while he works on the coast for probably another two to three years trying to make sure his retirement will be solid.
Robinson was raised in an Air Force family that literally traveled the world with stints in the Philippines, California, Wisconsin and Montana.
When it came time for his dad to head back to the Philippines, Robinson's parents had the Gamas family in Glasgow assigned as Roy's legal guardians to make it easier for him to be recruited by U.S. colleges.
"My dad wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get a scholarship on the military bases," Robinson explained.
Even though he also had recruiting interest from places like the universities of Washington and Minnesota, Robinson already had taken a liking to Missoula, having competed in three Interscholastics track meets that used to be staged annually at the original Dornblaser Stadium on the UM campus.
Robinson also liked the idea that classmates from Glasgow also planned to attend UM. His first roommate was former prep teammate Ted Schye of Glasgow.
His parents, now deceased, also had hoped he would remain in Montana.
UM's primary recruiters at the time were venerable track coach Harry Adams and head football coach Hugh Davidson. Once Robinson actually competed at UM - from 1967 through 1970 - he was coached primarily by Harley Lewis in track and Jack Swarthout in football.
When he arrived at UM Robinson initially planned to compete only in football. But it didn't take long for him to wind up on the track team as well.
Robinson had to improve his grades coming out of high school so he didn't end up competing for the Grizzlies until 1967. Tried some on offense, he found his football niche in the defensive backfield and was named to the all-Big Sky Conference team following the Grizzlies' 10-1 1969 season.
Robinson admitted he wasn't sure he could handle the hurdles as a high school runner.
"It was really challenging for me," he said. "I remember the first time I watched people hurdling I said, 'I don't think I can do that.'"
But during his sophomore year he told Freund he wanted to try it. There were some doubters until, just a few days later, Robinson won the high hurdles at an indoor meet in Bozeman.
Robinson credited Freund with helping him refine his hurdling technique.
Robinson got his first exposure to football as about a fourth grader when his parents were first stationed in the Philippines at Clark Air Force Base, where they had something similar to Missoula's Little Grizzly Football program.
"My dad was quite a baseball player," Robinson recalled, "and so he kept pushing me into baseball. I didn't want to do baseball. It wasn't any fun for me."
Roy Robinson strains for the finish line during a high school race at the annual Interscholastics meet in Missoula. Robinson was competing for Glasgow High School.
UM SPORTS INFORMATION Photo
By the time his dad stopped pushing him just a few years later Robinson actually came to like baseball.
Robinson also tried basketball but, as a high school player, went to Freund and told him he "was stinking up the court and somebody else should be playing in (his) place." And that was the end of his basketball career.
His other adjustment coming from Glasgow to UM - even though he had been Missoula several times before - was the mountainous terrain.
"There were times when I felt that I was trapped here," Robinson admitted, "and I would go up to the "M" and just sit up there and (say), 'okay, now here's my openness.'"
Robinson not only got used to the mountains, he came to love them, and Missoula.
One thing that also helped in the transition was competing for Swarthout and Lewis, two of UM's all-time great coaches.
"It was amazing because in high school you had the screaming coaches - push, push, push," Robinson remembered. "Jack Swarthout was just the opposite. He was real quiet and never swore at you or anything.
"It was just kind of like he motivated you to be better without really having to press you," Robinson added. "You had to make up your mind and say, 'I'm gonna make myself better.' And Harley was pretty much the same way."
But Robinson still credits Freund for turning him in the right direction in high school as far as his work ethic was concerned.
Robinson said the whole UM experience was special for him. The Viet Nam war was going on at the time, and he remembers the protests and people "just coming together. It was just a real exciting time in my life."
Again, Robinson credits mentors for helping him gain the confidence that he could accomplish special things at UM. One of them was sprinter and fellow football player Willie Jones.
There's no question it was much more competitive at the college level than it had been for him in high school.
"I can remember a race against Wayne Calgary from Idaho State," Robinson said. "It was right down to the wire. I still have a photo of us coming off the last hurdle and it looked like it was dead even there."
Following his senior football season Robinson was drafted in the ninth round by the Atlanta Falcons and, with one other rookie, made it to the last cut. Following his release by the Falcons Robinson got a tryout with the Denver Broncos.
That's where he made a decision he still regrets to this day.
"I didn't agree with what was going on so I walked out of camp and never had another chance again in the NFL," Robinson recalled. "I was young and mouthy and wanted to play. I wanted to prove that I could play. I just felt that I should be playing and I got angry and left."
The Broncos had offered him a spot on their taxi squad, which he refused. A short time after he left camp Denver suffered some injuries in the secondary that probably would have opened the door for him.
"By the time my parents got hold of me and told me what was going on I called them (the Broncos) and they said, 'no, we got people from the Continental League,'" Robinson said. "I had kind of aced myself out. (I was) young and made the wrong choice."
He played one year in the Canadian Football League but started having problems with his right knee. After leaving Canada Robinson tried out with the Portland Storm of the new World Football League, but that league folded halfway through the season and he was done.
The Robinson's oldest three kids are somewhat spread out.
Claudine, a Hellgate High grad who became a star track athlete at the University of Washington, is 35 and lives in Seattle and Atlanta with her husband, Lawyer Milloy, who plays for the Atlanta Falcons. They have three of the Robinson's five granddaughters.
Amanda and her husband, Chad, live in Mill Creek, Wash. Chad is actually Roy's current boss.
Marissa has a family in Huntington Beach, Calif. She and Amanda each have a daughter.
Christopher was just recently married and Dashinda is a sophomore at Hellgate High School.
Roy and Sandi met while attending UM. Robinson had seen her at the food service a few times and one day, when he saw her walking to class, decided it was time to make a move.
"I just jumped in front of her and asked her what her name was," Robinson laughed. "And I wouldn't let her by until she told me her name."
After the initial shock the two struck up a relationship that has lasted ever since, even through the trying times of late.
Once they were married they at one time contemplated a move to Seattle, but decided Missoula was a better place to raise their kids and insulate them from "drugs or whatever else that kids could get into."
One thing going to college and competing in athletics taught Robinson was the value of teamwork.
"I thought that I liked the individual sports, but I thought the team sports really contributed to later on in my life, working with people (and) getting things done and accomplished in groups," he explained.
Robinson also talked about what it was like to be a Grizzly when another UM legend, Naseby Rhinehart, was the athletic trainer.
"Naseby was just an unbelievable individual," Robinson said. "He really did inspire a lot of us who came to the University of Montana. It was just incredible sharing the athletic field with Naseby."
Roy and Sandi used to have season tickets to Grizzly football games, but his current employment situation made it too tough to keep them.
